Newcastle United players left St James’ Park under a veil of silence following their woeful 3-1 defeat to AFC Bournemouth on Saturday, a result which left head coach Steve McClaren’s future very much shrouded in doubt.

After the match, reporters waited for 45 minutes in the mixed zone but no players came forward to speak out and explain the Magpies’ fourth defeat in their last five outings - despite their head coach potentially being on the brink.

Stand-in captain Jonjo Shelvey, who wore the skipper’s armband during Fabricio Coloccini’s injury-enforced absence, was among the players to decline to answer questions, even though United now lie second-bottom of the table with just 10 games remaining.

And all this after the Newcastle players released a statement - which the club insist was done independently of themselves - less than two hours before kick-off professing their support for McClaren.

No player would put a specific name to the statement backing McClaren to remain in charge; instead a generic snippet was released pre-match and then not backed up on the field.

The ex-England manager remains in charge at St James’ Park and it is expected that his fate will be decided over the next 24 hours, with Newcastle set to return to training on Tuesday.

Managing director Lee Charnley waited six months last year in order to secure McClaren’s signature as head coach and it is believed he has been reluctant to dispense of the former Derby County boss’ services.

With relegation set to cost Newcastle millions in TV revenue, owner Mike Ashley - who has taken a backseat as far as decision-making at the Magpies is concerned in recent months - could yet act though.

David Moyes, Rafael Benitez, Brendan Rodgers, Nigel Pearson and Garry Monk are just some of the out-of-work managers who have already been touted to take over should United wield the axe.

But, given that the Newcastle players were so keen to make public their support for their head coach in a faceless statement, their display on Saturday failed to back up their words.

Also in that statement was a promise to “fight” in every single game until the end of the season.

Unfortunately, against the Cherries they never looked like backing up that statement as an own-goal from Steven Taylor, as well as strikes from Josh King and Charlie Daniels, condemned the Magpies to a 16th Premier League defeat of the season under McClaren.

Ayoze Perez may have grabbed a consolation goal, but United are now vying with Sunderland and Norwich City for what appears like the final survival slot this season.

Following the defeat, McClaren insisted he would not resign as head coach, though he did admit the touchline is a lonely place when home supporters are calling for you to be sacked.

“That is part of being a coach,” McClaren said. “That is one of the perils of it, and not my side of it.

“It is very, very understandable and I don’t blame them at all.

“When you look at that performance it angers and frustrates me just the same.

“We work with these players and they are better than that.

“Only a few can come out and say they have the character and handle that.

“We will make that obvious and we will do a lot of work behind the scenes.

“I can’t make excuses, I can’t say anything.

“You know you see it. You know what we have got in and what we have got out.

“I have said to the players this is it. In that dressing room this is it.